Picture This - School of Art

Justin Andrews
Leah Bullen
Claudia Chaseling
Trevelyan Clay
Nicola Dickson
picture
this
Scott Franks
Danny Frommer
Karina Henderson
Greg Hodge
Karena Keys
Madeline Kidd
Waratah Lahy
Victoria Lees
Sue Lovegrove
Geoff Newton
Meg Roberts
Emily Robinson
Helen Shelley
Noël Skrzypczak
Gary Smith
Kate Stevens
Penny Stott
Frank Thirion
Elefteria Vlavianos
Therese Wilson
Paul Wotherspoon
Habib Zeitouneh
Supported by the ANU National Institute of the
Humanities & Creative Arts
ANU school of art painting alumni 2000-6
ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences
picture this
ANU school of art painting alumni 2000-6
Justin Andrews
Leah Bullen
Claudia Chaseling
Trevelyn Clay
Nicola Dickson
Scott Franks
Danny Frommer
Karina Henderson
Greg Hodge
Karena Keys
Madeline Kidd
Waratah Lahy
Victoria Lees
Sue Lovegrove
Geoff Newton
Meg Roberts
Emily Robinson
Helen Shelley
Noël Skrzypczak
Gary Smith
Kate Stevens
Penny Stott
Frank Thirion
Elefteria Vlavianos
Therese Wilson
Paul Wotherspoon
Habib Zeitouneh
ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences
contents
Introduction: The Empire of Painting
5
Abstraction, sensation and materiality
9
Justin Andrews
Scott Franks
Greg Hodge
Karena Keys
Sue Lovegrove
Geoff Newton
Helen Shelley
Noël Skrzypczak
Gary Smith
Penny Stott
Frank Thirion
Elefteria Vlavianos
Therese Wilson
Paul Wotherspoon
Figuration, narrative and the mediated image
41
Leah Bullen
Claudia Chaseling
Trevelyan Clay
Nicola Dickson
Danny Frommer
Karina Henderson
Madeline Kidd
Waratah Lahy
Victoria Lees
Meg Roberts
Emily Robinson
Kate Stevens
Habib Zeitouneh
About the School of Art
70
Local Supporting Galleries and Artist Studios
71
Acknowledements
74
Introduction: The Empire of Painting
This is an exhibition of dizzying diversity. What do these works have in
common? Two things at least: that they are works of art that engage
with the traditions of painting, still, after centuries, the dominant mode
of representation in the western canon; and that they are the products
of alumni of the Painting Workshop at The Australian National University, represented by work produced over the past five years.
What the exhibition shows is that in the current state of the art there
is no single way of painting: there is no preferred point of reference
in the tradition, or in contemporary experience, that can give direction
for a painter today. It shows that there is no style or theme that drives
contemporary art. It also demonstrates the breadth of teaching at the
ANU Painting Workshop: that there is no ‘house style’ is a sign of a very
healthy environment; this is a model for how the creative arts should be
taught.
As a viewer, one is left to examine fundamentals when looking at these
paintings. All of these works of art are concerned with the possibilities
of painting as a material process. They ask us to look at the paint itself
and the surface it is applied to: sometimes a thin and transparent glaze
on canvas, sometimes an opaque, bulging impasto on an unanticipated
surface.
These fundamentals lead to other associations and points of reference.
Often the work addresses traditional concerns of painting: sometimes
conjuring a figure, or a geometry; often lovely, sometimes repulsive. But
the ambition of these works is far reaching. As well as the traditions of
painting many are concerned with other modes of representation and
other forms of art. Looking at them one can see explorations of the
ways in which painting might encounter and refashion the processes
and effects of photography, or film or video; while others are related to
digital technologies ranging from computer games to medical imaging.
And whole other material traditions are explored, such as the weaving
techniques of textiles.
5
Nothing, it appears, is beyond the empire of painting. And in the works
assembled here a great range of human experience is essayed: from
conflict and war, to landscape and the contemplation of nature; from
arcane mysteries to playful, engaging jokes. Some works explore the
fundamentals of perception and what painting can tell us about such
processes and their relationship to representation. Others deal with
history, sometimes through using precise quotations of the history of
painting itself, and so inquire into our place here and now in Australia.
Finally then, the great diversity of this exhibition is its most important
message. It is a joyful celebration of the possibilities of painting, and a
bold assertion of its importance in the twenty-first century.
Gordon Bull
Head, School of Art
The Australian National University
September 2006
Abstraction, sensation and
materiality
Abstraction, sensation and
materiality
In the early twenty-first century painting remains the medium of choice
for artists of an extraordinarily wide range of enthusiasms, insights,
obsessions and talents.
Several of the painters represented here, such as Sue Lovegrove,
Gary Smith, Penny Stott, Frank Thirion and Greg Hodge approach
the painting process as a meditation on aspects of the natural world.
The material, abstract qualities of painting- colour, surface, gesture,
pattern, luminosity are worked to evoke quite specific sensations
of natural phenomena - geology, weather, flight, growth. There is a
quality of immersion in the refined and reflective labour invested in this
kind of painting. It is as if the viewer is delivered into something like a
parallel time and space where the physical act of making and the visual
sensations thus generated are synaesthetically fused.
Recent abstract painting also reflects current curiosity and enthusiasm
for questions of cultural difference and exchange, with painters finding
a new pleasure and significance in the patterns associated with diverse
decorative traditions. This is evident in the paintings of Ria Vlavianos
and Therese Wilson, where such motifs become metonyms for wider
cultural themes and personal experiences. In activating the canvas as
fabric, these painters exploit effects of staining and printing, allusions to
stitching and a picture space that is fluid in which images interweave,
float and veil.
The fascination with spatial geometry which found radical new
expression in the early twentieth century painting persists in the twentyfirst, bringing the material craft and formal language of painting into
dialogue with the realm of the virtual, concerns evident in the work of
Justin Andrews and Scott Franks. This precision of the hand slows
the eye, mapping an ambiguous and shifting space.
9
For Karena Keys and Paul Wotherspoon paint’s plasticity and
anachronistic materiality becomes a vehicle for a paradoxically physical
practice with a wry conceptual drive.
It may no longer be sensible to attempt to draw a meaningful distinction
between abstraction and representation, as painters today so often
work across genres and explore paradoxical hybrids, “finding”
abstraction in imagery gleaned from the glut of the visual world (as
in Helen Shelley’s photo/mixed media paintings) or representing
abstractions as “figurative” subjects (such as in Geoff Newton’s
knowing reworking of Rothko).
Perhaps it is in Noël Skrzypczak’s work It came out of me that this play
is most strikingly evident- as here painting becomes a shape-changing
phantasm, simultaneously both figure and ground, a chromatic
ectoplasm, a metamorphic cave, something unnameable conjuring the
illusion of an accident, a sheer and finely crafted spill.
Justin Andrews
Untitled Painting (12.2005), 2006
acrylic on MDF panel
60 x 90 cm
Untitled Painting (12.2005), 2006
acrylic on MDF panel
60 x 90 cm
Born in 1973 in Melbourne, Justin completed his Bachelor of Arts (Visual) with
Honours in 2000 and was awarded the University Medal. During 2000 he was
also awarded a UMAP scholarship which enabled him to study for a semester
at Lasalle SIA in Singapore. In 2003 he completed a Master of Philosophy in
Visual Art at ANU.
Andrews’ practice, characterized by a sustained fascination with spatial
geometry and delivered with uncommon precision and a cool passion, spans
painting, drawing, sculpture, film, site-specific wall works, and photography as
well as writing including reviews and interviews.
Andrews has held solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Canberra, and Sydney and
has participated in group exhibitions both locally and internationally.
He is a member of the MIR11 artist group, and contributor to the INVERTED
TOPOLOGY collaboration project.
11
Justin currently lives, works and lectures in Mildura, Victoria.
Scott Franks
New Beginnings, 2006
synthetic polymer on canvas
210 x 152 cm
13
Scott Franks was born in London in 1970 and came to Australia in 1984. Franks
moved to the ACT in 1998 to attend the ANU School of Art. Upon graduating in
2001, he was awarded the KPMG Acquisition Award and the NECG Acquisition
Award through the Emerging Artists Support Scheme. During his time in
Canberra, Franks has exhibited in numerous group shows. He has produced
CD Artwork for Sydney based jazz trio Tree, also for singer/songwriter Inga
Liljestrom. In 2005 he was awarded the Canberra Contemporary Art Space
Drawing Prize. Currently Franks works at the National Gallery of Australia as
a mounter and framer of works on paper. As an artist he is interested in the
current scientific and technological climate (locally and globally), it’s impact on
the future and the correlations between the industrial and digital revolutions.
Greg Hodge
Red Undertow, 2006
oil on canvas
180 x 180 cm
Greg Hodge was born in Sydney in 1982 and graduated with Honours in
Painting from ANU School of Art in 2005. On graduating he was awarded a
residency at Hawker College, ACT and an exhibition at M16 Studios, Fyshwick
and had a work acquired under the Emerging Artists Support Scheme. This
has resulted in two solo shows in 2006: Out if sight at Hawker College and A
place for gravity at M16 Gallery. Greg’s paintings juxtapose subtle gaseous
atmospheres with waves of liquid translucency and intensely coloured fields of
geometric abstraction. Group shows include You can’t do this on television at
The Front, Lyneham, ACT in 2005.
15
Karena Keys
Fan, 2006
acrylic paint
33 x 27 x 18 cm
17
Karena comes from West Belconnen, Canberra, the last of seven children
in a three bedroom house. Group exhibitions have included You Can’t Do
This on Television at The Front Gallery Lyneham, Retroactive at Canberra
Contemporary Art Space Manuka in 2005 and the ANU School of Art Graduate
exhibition also in 2005. Upon graduation she received a CCAS Studio
Residency as part of the Emerging Artist Support Scheme. During 2006
Karena has worked as a teaching assistant in the painting department at the
ANU School of Art. Karena’s work is witty and sensual, exploring painting
as a material process and paint as a plastic medium taken to physical and
conceptual extremes.
Sue Lovegrove
Convergence No 319, 2005
acrylic, gouache on paper
68 x 98 cm
Sue Lovegrove was born in Adelaide and received both her Bachelor of Arts
(Visual) and her PhD from the ANU School of Art. She has lectured in painting
at the ANU, at the Northern Territory University and in the School of Creative
Arts at the University of Wollongong. She is now a full time artist. In 2003 she
moved to Tasmania and in 2004 was awarded an Australian Antarctic Division
Arts Fellowship for travel to Antarctica.
Sue has held 10 solo exhibitions since 1990. She is represented in numerous
state and corporate collections including the National Gallery of Australia,
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art
Gallery. She is represented by Christine Abrahams Gallery. Melbourne, Helen
Maxwell Gallery, Canberra and Bett Gallery, Hobart.
19
‘I try to evoke a sensory experience of natural environments by building
up layers of paint and the use of repetitive lines to create a mesmeric
field. The patterns and structures found in the physical landscape as
well as colours and sounds of light and air are all starting points to
explore the formal language of abstraction. For me the act of painting,
building layers of wash or making a line is a way of recreating the
temporality of an intimate experience with the land and sea.’
Geoff Newton
Theatrum, 2004
c-type photograph
120 x 90 cm
Born in 1977, Geoff Newton has been a roadie for the Australian art world since
graduating from the Canberra School of Art in 2000. He has worked as an
installer, art handler, curator, artists’ assistant and more recently, as a director
of Melbourne’s new commercial gallery, Neon Parc.
Ashley Crawford writes
21
‘Geoff Newton seems to be having a lot of fun with his ongoing artistic
exploration of the relationship between painting and rock music. All
seems to be grist for Newton, from record covers to gumball machines.
Alongside his activities as a painter Newton has a self-produced album
featuring several groups (TEAM Antennas, Meat Campaign and more).
Newton tends to make knowing gags and jokes that puncture the
solemnity of the art scene.’
Helen Shelley
untitled 6, 2006
photographic print on canvas, mixed media
30 x 30 cm
Born in 1980 in Bathurst, Helen Shelley currently lives in Canberra.
Having completed Honours at the ANU in 2003, Helen was awarded an
exhibition by Alliance Francaise, Canberra, as part of the ANU Emerging Artists
Support Scheme (EASS). In 2003 she was also awarded the Canberra Artists’
Society Travelling Scholarship and travelled to Europe.
In 2005 she held a solo show, Object(ively), at Manuka Canberra Contemporary
Artspace and participated in Chica, A Female Perspective, a group project of
young women artists which toured to Phatspace, Sydney, Rocketart, Newcastle
and Platform, Melbourne. In 2006 she exhibited in Six Pack, a group show of
Australian artists at White Space, Auckland.
Helen assembles objects, materials, colours, and shapes and combines
painting, photography and mixed media to create fictional and fanciful spaces
reflecting her fascination with constructed human environments, artifice, and
the decorative and popular arts.
23
Noël Skrzypczak
Cave Painting, 2006
acrylic paint
240 x 300 cm
Noel completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts with First Class Honours at ANU in
2000. Since then she has exhibited in artist-run and publicly-funded spaces in
Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart, regional Victoria and Canberra.
In 2002 Noel received project funding from artsACT and held her first solo show
How come U don’t call me any more? at Canberra Contemporary Artspace,
Manuka. Since moving to Melbourne she has held two solo shows, All my days
at tcb art inc. and Love letter at Mir 11. Recent group shows include Empire
Games at the Containers Village at the Melbourne C’wealth Games and A
portable model of… at Plimsoll in Hobart and Latrobe Regional gallery. Noel’s
work was featured in Uncanny Nature at ACCA in 2006 and Dark shiny at Neon
Parc, Melbourne.
25
Skrzypczak describes the rationale for her painting practice to date as twopronged, consisting of a painterly engagement with art historical ideas on one
hand and the attempt to represent visually something that cannot be seen
–psychological experience or a psychological space - on the other.
Gary Smith
Duststorm, 2005
acylic on canvas
150 x 170 cm
Gary Smith was awarded a Bachelor of Fine Arts from RMIT in 1982, a
graduate Diploma at RMIT in 1983, and came to ANU to undertake a Master of
Philosophy in Visual Arts which he successfully completed in 2005.
Group shows in recent years include: Ceremonial vessels for the drinking of
water at ANU in 2003; Salt/water installation at Tumut and Present Tense at
ANU School of Art Gallery. Recent solo shows include Filling in the Blanks
at ANCA Gallery, Canberra in 2003, Fixation in the Foyer Gallery, School of
Art, ANU and Beyond Ground at Canberra Contemporary Artspace Manuka in
2006, a series of large layered and shifting skyscapes made in response to the
skies of painters such as Constable, Canaletto and Turner.
Gary writes of his painting Duststorm:
27
‘Sand in wind, dispersed traceries, grit that stings, no clear direction.
A past that falls between history and memory. Mnemesis what is both
remembered and just as importantly—forgotten.’
Penny Stott
Swoop, 2005
oil and acrylic on canvas
120 x 150 cm
Penny was born in 1962 and lives in Canberra. On graduating with Honours
from ANU School of Art in 2004, Penny was awarded the Alliance Francaise
Exhibition Award and her work was acquired by the ACT Chief Ministers’ Dept,
NECG and Chamberlain’s Law firm, all part of the EASS programme.
Group shows include Land$cape: Gold and water at Cowra Regional Gallery in
2003, We stayed up late last night at ANCA, ACT in 2004 and Continuum3 at
Alliance Francaise, ACT.
She writes:
29
‘From the roiling motion of bait balls to the airy grace of flocking birds
these paintings try to capture the ceaseless, ever changing movements
in nature. I want this motion of living to contrast with continuing
environmental degradation, the extinctions, the stillness of death.’
Frank Thirion
Saltwater Country, 2006
salt and acrylic paint on canvas
240 x 182 cm
31
Frank Thirion was born in Paris, France and migrated to Australia in 1967 and
currently lives in Canberra. In 1999 he graduated with Honours at the ANU
School of Art and was awarded a University Medal for Visual Arts. Thirion
received an Australian Postgraduate Awarded for a PhD in Visual Art (Painting)
at The ANU School of Art, which he completed in 2004. Thirion won the
Canberra Art Prize in 2002, and has twice been short-listed for the Wynne Prize
at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Since graduating he has participated
in over 40 exhibitions in Australia. His works are held in the collections of the
National Museum of Australia, Parliament House Canberra, and the ANU, as
well as private collections in Australia, Europe and the USA. His PhD research
work was cited by James Elkins in the Printed Project No.4, Sculptors’ Society
of Ireland, Dublin 2005. Frank is currently working with the artist Paddy
Fordham Wainburranga on a forthcoming publication, which focus on the art
and oral histories of the Rembarrnga people from Central Arnhem Land. Thirion
is best known for his extensive experimentation with salt as a medium both in
paintings and in his installation work, reflecting his concerns with environmental
salination.
Elefteria Vlavianos
Havanas, 2006
acrylic and oil on canvas
120 x 150 cm
Elefteria Vlavianos, gradated from ANU in 2002, with Honours, and was the
recipient of the Embassy of Spain Travelling Scholarship, the M16 Residency
Award and the Australian National Capital Artists (ANCA) Exhibition Award.
Elefteria is of mixed Armenian and Greek heritage, was born in Zimbabwe
and grew up in South Africa. It is from this rich cultural background that she
draws inspiration for her work. Her current series of paintings explores both
the Armenian Alphabet and eleventh century miniature manuscript paintings
as she investigates the themes of memory, loss and nostalgia. Paintings are
constructed through a rich multiplicity of layers and incorporate a process of
employing a “stitch or tacking” mark across the surface that attempts to salvage
and retrieve fragments from the past.
33
Elefteria has held two successful solo shows at the ANCA Gallery, Canberra in
2003 and 2004 and has participated in many group shows.
Therese Wilson
Kekayon, (diptych), 2005
acrylic/silkscreen on canvas
105 x 160 cm (105 x 80 cm each)
Therese was born in Malaya in 1951 and grew up in Singapore. Her family
was Chinese/Peranakan and spoke Malay and she had an English education
in a Convent School. Having earlier trained in design, Therese graduated from
painting at ANU School of Art in 2002.
Since then she has had a solo show at Canberra Contemporary Artspace
(2002). Group shows include Bega Valley Regional Gallery 2004 and ANCA
in Dickson. She won an award for abstraction at Bega Valley Gallery Art Prize
in 2002 and a grant from artsACT for the four person show at Bega Valley
Regional Gallery in 2004.
35
Therese’s work reflects her cultural background through exploring relations of
abstraction to traditional patterns found in printed fabrics and other decorative
arts.
Paul Wotherspoon
Transparent Radiation, 2006
compound membrane, silicon, synthetic polymer paint, air
dimensions variable (140 nx 100 cm deflated)
Paul graduated from ANU with a Bachelor of Arts (Visual) Honours in 2004.
During 2003, through ANU’s exchange programme, he studied at the Ecole
Nationale Superieur des Beaux Arts in Paris. While in Paris he participated in
group shows at Art Frezza and Galerie Gauche. In 2004 he showed at ANCA
Gallery Canberra in a two-man show, 2x4, with Danny Frommer.
On graduation Paul was awarded a studio residency and exhibition by
Canberra Contemporary Artspace, resulting in a solo show, Meat and potatoes,
at CCAS Manuka gallery in 2006, and an installation in the Foyer gallery at the
ANU School of Art.
37
Wotherspoon’s work explores relations between painting as image, as object
and as machine with the use of unconventional supports and the activation of
paintings in space by inflation. He uses vinyl, cellotape and paint pours and air
with a sharp modernist eye, neo-dada wit and an idiosyncratic DIY twist. Paul
currently lives in Melbourne.
Figuration, narrative and the
mediated image
Figuration, narrative and the
mediated image
Despite history painter Paul Delaroche’s declaration of 1839, that, with
the development of the daguerrotype, From today, painting is dead!,
painters continue to be fascinated and stimulated by the challenging
and changing ways of imaging the world produced by developments in
visual technology.
Many contemporary painters find new narrative potential in exploring
devices and effects which allude to the temporal and digital mediavideo, television and film. Kate Stevens’ paintings have their origins
in video footage- she translates the freeze frame into an enduring and
evocative material image, lyrically ringing with saturated colour. Leah
Bullen’s practice centres on capturing the quality of slippage between
the mediated image and the independent reality of the painterly world.
Her focus here is on stilling moments of the everyday urban lives of
young women.
Danny Frommer’s recent trip to Israel has generated troubling images
of the disputed territories rendered as painterly translations of digital
filters. While these pictures are laden with pathos, the mediation of
technology here also takes on metaphoric significance, alluding to the
politics of information.
In Hahib Zeitouneh’s painting Coffin, the picture space itself is the
housing for the digitised body of a young sailor, poignantly festooned
with medals.
41
In several of the figurative works included here, the artist becomes her
own subject, her own sitter. While self portraiture might start out as a
simple pragmatic solution for the painter in need of a model, in each
of these instances the act of painting the self reflects quite specific
concerns or personal experiences. Meg Roberts adopts poses of
physical stress to heighten the sense of inhabiting a body, of composing
herself within the frame. Karina Henderson conjures herself out of
shifting fields of colour and light, Emily Robinson is the sleeping
subject, looming above a lilliputian observer, while Victoria Lees’ video
work fuses manipulated footage of dozens of tiny self portrait drawings
with recordings of her own voice distorted by a neurological illness.
In the works of Claudia Chaseling and Nicola Dickson a sense of
place is evoked. Chaseling explores the coast. The fluid exchange of
land and sea, of the natural and the built environment is played out
through a lyrical shimmer of cross-hatching. Nicola Dickson’s interests
centre on relations between nature and culture. Motifs of species
introduced to the Australian landscape activate figure/ground relations
in the imported fields of paisley patterning.
A sense of the exotic is also present in the work of Madeline Kidd.
Here orientalism meets pop meets flat painting in a postmodern
harem of poolside condos and where we meet the empty gazes of the
glamorous.
Trevelyan Clay’s visionary realm is a faux naïve hybrid of the digital
and the spiritual, intersecting pattern and narrative, text and image with
wonder and banality. His is an imagination triggered by the virtual space
of video games, making visual poetry out of the incongruous fusion of
the folkish, the pop and the personal.
Waratah Lahy’s paintings reflect quizzically on the categories and
criteria of awards associated with rural shows. These best in show
ribbons and tokens of encouragement for scones, dahlias or decorated
cakes inevitably provoke comparison with the glittering prizes of art
world. Waratah’s modest and finely crafted pictures resonate teasingly
for any of us who hold out hope of winning the praise of our culture’s
taste-and-stylemakers.
Leah Bullen
Disassemble II, 2006
oil and acrylic on canvas
80 x 60 cm
Leah was born in Armidale, NSW in 1972 and was awarded Bachelor of
Arts (Visual) with Honours from ANU School of Art in 2005. During her
undergraduate studies Leah spent a semester in Prague through the ANU
student exchange programme.
On graduating Leah’s work was acquired by Parker Financial, Bradley Allen,
KPMG, Henry Ergas and EASS Loan Collection, all awards of the ANU
Emerging Artists’ Support Scheme. She was also awarded a 2006 residency at
the Canberra Contemporary Artspace.
43
Leah has exhibited in group shows: We woke up this morning at Australian
National Capital Artists at Dickson, ACT and You can’t do this on television
at The Front, Lyneham, ACT and currently works as a teaching assistant in
painting at ANU. Her work explores the territory between the photographic and
the painterly, recording subtlely observed moments of contemporary urban life.
Claudia Chaseling
behind, 2004
egg tempera, pigments, oil on canvas
180 x 123 cm
Collection of Stephanie Burns
Claudia has studied painting in Vienna, Berlin and Canberra, completing two
Master degrees, one from the University of the Arts (UdK) Berlin, Germany
and the second from the ANU School of Arts. Chaseling has exhibited in the
USA, Italy, Austria, Germany and Australia. She is the recipient of several
major grants and prizes, including a travel scholarship through BMW to the
USA, a one year scholarship by the German DAAD, a studio stipend by the
German Karl Hofer Society, two artsACT grants and most recently the Samstag
scholarship, to study in London. In 2005 Chaseling had solo exhibitions in
Germany with Galerie Anke Zeisler in Berlin, the Kunstverein Elmshorn and
the Galerie Remise Degewo in Berlin. In 2006 she will hold solo exhibitions at
Über Gallery and Galerie Henrike Höhn with the title future now. Uber Gallery
showed Chaseling’s work at the 2006 Melbourne Art Fair.
‘My representation of landscape involves multiple perspectives.
45
Painting the reflections of water and combining many transparent
pictures in layers allows me to paint a juxtaposition of fragments from
structure, space and a natural dynamic. Water represents life and
transition.’
Trevelyan Clay
So Digital, 2006
oil on board
101 x 142 cm
Born in England in 1982, Trevelyan moved from the central coast to Canberra
in 2001 and completed his Bachelor of Arts (Visual) with Honours in 2004.
On graduating his work was acquired by the ANU and by KPMG and he was
awarded a six month residency with Canberra Contemporary Artspace which
provided him with a studio residency and an exhibition at the CCAS Manuka
gallery.
In 2005 he was awarded an ArtsACT Emerging Artists Grant and won the
Peoples’ Choice Award at the Canberra Contemporary Artspace Art Award.
His first solo show was Spendin’ Time on an Image at CCAS in 2006 and he
was included in The Oz Pack curated by Peter Fay for the Stark White Gallery,
Auckland NZ in 2006.
47
Trevelyan paints a visionary world where nature and video-games intersect,
where awe collides with banality, pattern meets narrative, digital meets spiritual,
and wit meets wonder.
Nicola Dickson
Female Nature 1, 2006
acrylic and oil on canvas
40 x 60 cm
Nicola was born in 1959 and completed a Bachelor in Visual Arts with Honours
in 2003 at the Australian National University. She was a recipient of the ANU
HC Coombs scholarship and the EASS ANU Art Collection Acquisitive award in
2003.
49
By any other name was her first solo exhibition at the Canberra Contemporary
Art Space in 2004. This was followed by Garden Games at the Canberra
Grammar School and Mementos at Impressions on Paper Gallery in 2005. In
2006 Nicola commenced a PhD at ANU that will examine relations between
the decorative arts and the concept of nature in Australia. This continues her
long-standing interest in the relation between nature and culture, ecology and
colonialism, pattern, narrative and the domestic.
Danny Frommer
Babel Revisited, 2006
oil on canvas
91 x 76 cm
Danny was born in Canberra in 1979 and completed his Bachelor of Arts
(Visual) in 2002. He was a Graduate in Residence at the computer art studio at
ANU in 2005 and an artist in residence at Canberra Contemporary Artspace in
2005. In 2005 he was awarded an Arts ACT Project grant.
Danny has had two successful solo shows at the CCAS Manuka gallery,
Popcorn apathy in 2003 and Over that hill,,, are people in 2006.
Danny’s work reflects his interest in how the mediation of visual technologies, of
political and cultural institutions, news media and the internet, filter and shape
information and affect its interpretation.
51
His approach to painting is methodical and quietly insistent in its materiality.
With a sensitive touch he delivers images of world politics and global strife and
explores such dichotomies as the personal/impersonal, the local/global, the
emotional/rational, the didactic/aesthetic, and the abstract/concrete.
Karina Henderson
Head and Shoulders closeup, 2006
oil on canvas
110.5 x 75 cm
Karina was born in Penrith NSW in 1981 and graduated from ANU School of Art
in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts (Visual) with Honours. On graduation Karina’s
work was acquired by the Embassy of Spain and Mallesons Stephen Jacques
through the ANU Emerging Artists Support Scheme. She was also awarded a
residency at Hawker College, ACT which resulted in an exhibition of paintings,
Moments. In 2006 Karina exhibited At Home, at Rarified Gallery, Dickson ACT.
53
Karina continues to live in Canberra and her work continues to focus on the
figure, usually herself, in domestic and garden settings, delivered in broad
layers of colour shifting from opacity to translucency.
Madeline Kidd
We’ll call you, 2005
oil on canvas
30 x 41 cm
Madeline was born in Launceston, Tasmania in 1979 and currently lives in
Melbourne. Having graduated from ANU School of Art in 2000, Madeline
has participated in many group shows including Masters of the universe ay
Contemporary Artspace Manuka, Snap! At ANU School of Art Gallery, If U were
mine at Gallery Wren, Sydney and Linden, Melbourne, and Mixed Business
at Seventh Gallery, Melbourne. Solo shows include Mood swings (2001) at
Artspace 71, Crowd pleasers at TBC ArtInc, Melbourne (2003), and in 2004 and
’05 paintings at Legge Gallery, Sydney.
In 2002 she was awarded an Emerging Artists Grant from ArtsACT and in 2004
an artist-in-residency with St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne.
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Madeline’s small but intense paintings have explored media-derived imagery
of sensually sift-focussed footballers, the frozen blur of horse races and here a
strange flat and cool poolside world of cultural and aesthetic disconnection.
Waratah Lahy
Encouragement, 2006
28 x 25 cm
oil on linen
Born in Sydney in 1974, Waratah Lahy is currently engaged in the PhD
programme at ANU School of Art. She completed her BA (Visual) with Honours
in 1998 and was awarded the University Medal.
Since that time she has participated in 33 group exhibitions in Hobart,
Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney and Newcastle. In 2005 she had work selected
for the City of Hobart Art Prize and also the Canberra Contemporary Art Space
Prize, winning the Helen Maxwell Gallery exhibition award. Waratah has had 7
solo exhibitions in Canberra and Melbourne, receiving a Pat Corrigan Artists’
Grant towards a solo exhibition at the Linden St Kilda Centre for the Arts in
Melbourne in 2003. She was artist in residence at in 2001 at Bundanon and in
2005 at the Schloss Haldenstein in Switzerland. In 2006 she received the ANU
EASS Patrons Graduate Anniversary Scholarship.
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Waratah’s practice explores ideas of Australian iconic culture: images of country
shows, beer, blokes, Big Things and holidays, delivered to the surfaces of beer
cans and bottle tops and small canvases, with a meticulous attention, wry wit
and affection.
Victoria Lees
Fallacy, 2006
digital video (still)
7 mins
Born in Melbourne in 1973, Victoria Lees graduated from ANU School of Art
with Honours in 2002 and is currently engaged in the Master of Philosophy
programme. Victoria’s work spans painting, drawing, text, video, sound and
installation. Her video “Tension” screened at the Canberra Short Film Festival in
2002.
In 2003 Victoria participated in a group show, Passages, at Bega Valley
Regional Gallery, with the support of artsACT funding.
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Victoria’s work draws on medical imaging- scans and x-rays as a vehicle for
exploring states of mind and body, rationality, physicality and emotion, control
and abandon, the sense of self and its dissolution. Her background in dance
informs her explorations of bodily movement, rhythmic sound and performance.
Meg Roberts
The other hand, II, 2006
oil, graphite on canvas
50 x 40 cm
Meg was born in Canberra in 1983, and she continues to live in the ACT. She
studied at the Australian National University from 2001 to 2005. During her
final year she spent a term at the Glasgow School of Art on ANU’s exchange
programme enabling her to also tour the museums of Europe. She graduated
with a combined degree in 2005; Bachelor Arts/Bachelor Visual Arts (Hons) and
was awarded the Canberra Contemporary Art Space Emerging Artist Residency
for 2006, and the ANU Emerging Artist Support Scheme Embassy of Spain
Australian Young Artists’ Scholarship. In 2006 she received an artsACT Travel
Grant to assist in her research tour to Spain. Her work was shown in Hatched
06: National Graduate Show, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts.
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Meg’s work involves using her own body as a subject. She is concerned with
the materiality of paint and its use in representing the sensation of embodiment.
Her recent influences include 17th century European devotional painting and
sculpture.
Emily Robinson
Untitled, 2005
mixed media on MDF, pen on foam core (cut-out figure)
90 x 240 cm (wall panel), dimensions variable (cut-out)
Born in 1977 Corvallis, Oregon, USA, Emily Robinson is currently living and
working in Canberra.
In 2003 Emily completed a Bachelor of Arts (Visual) with Honours at The ANU,
and received the NECG Acquisitive Award under the Emerging Artist Support
Scheme.
Shortly after graduating, she and Rachel Peachey received an artsACT grant
for a residency in Tamil Nadu, India, resulting in an exhibition at the Bharat
Nivas Gallery in Auroville, India and at the Canberra Contemporary Art Space,
Manuka.
During 2005 she exhibited in group shows at Phatspace in Sydney, Rocketart
in Newcastle, Platform 2 in Melboune and in Canberra at the Canberra
Contemporary Art Space and in 2006 she exhibited in an Australian group show
at Stark White Gallery in Auckland, New Zealand.
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Emily is currently working on a collaborative artist book funded by artsACT, and
an upcoming solo show. Emily’s work deals with inner emotional states and
their external manifestations. She explores these ideas through playing with
scale relationships between isolated figures, animals and objects. Currently
she works largely with drawing, mixed media and found objects.
Kate Stevens
Ring Road #3, 2005
oil on canvas
100 x 140 cm
Born 1979 in Hobart, Kate completed her BA (Visual) with Honours at ANU
in 2001. In 2002 She was awarded the Art Society of Canberra Travelling
Scholarship and in 2003 the Foundation for Young Australians Emerging Artist
Residency at Canberra Contemporary Artspace.
In 2003 Kate’s first solo show was Day tripper at Canberra Contemporary
Artspace, Makuka, where she also soloed in Kathmandu Honeymoon in 2005.
Group shows include The Sleeper, 24:7 at Canberra Railway Museum and
Depth of Field at Shepparton Art Gallery and Monash University Museum in
2003-4.
Kate currently lives in Braidwood.
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Kate Stevens’ paintings reflect her fascination with vision in flux- images of
urban life and global culture mediated by the photograph, the digital, film and
video. She has a keen sense of the rich pictorial potential of fusing the vibrant
and sensual materiality of oil paint with the fleetingly amaterial phantasms of
the photographic.
Habib Zeitouneh
coffin, 2006
acrylic on canvas
220 x 100 cm
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Habib grew up in western Sydney and graduated with Honours from ANU
School of Art in 2001. During his undergraduate studies he spent an exchange
semester at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2003-4 he spent time in residency at
Studio 11 Brooklyn, NY. In 2002 he was awarded a show, 12 Hours in Lebanon,
at Alliance Francaise in Canberra. In 2003 he held a solo show in SOL
Gallery, Daegu, South Korea. Habib’s work draws upon images gleaned from
photography and video which he collects and manipulates and redelivers with a
sensual painterly touch. Thus multiple stories are retold and re-contextualised.
His imagery reflects Michel Foucault’s focus on how human nature functions in
historic/political systems. In 2005 he was awarded a Masters of Contemporary
Art for Educators from the University of Sydney. In 2006 he participated in
T’fouh at Mori Gallery, Sydney. His work is held in the Transfield Collection,
ANU and Seoul National University collection.
About the School of Art
The Painting Workshop at the ANU School of Art offers an undergraduate
program designed to develop every student’s ability to determine the direction
of their own practice and explore the subjects, skills and processes appropriate
to their studio research. Students are exposed to a wide range of painting
practices and encouraged to engage with painting’s history as well as the
extraordinary diversity of contemporary practice, both in the studio and in
weekly seminar and lecture programs. These courses are taught by an
experienced team of practising artists. The regular Visiting Artists program
ensures that new ideas and influences are constantly being drawn into our
curriculum. For graduate students, the workshop offers individual studios,
seminar program and excellent technical facilities.
The ANU School of Art’s undergraduate and postgraduate programs provide for
introductory to advanced study in the practice of art through coursework, project
work and research in the range of visual arts and design practices offered in the
School’s workshops and studios.
Undergraduate students may take the three-year Bachelor of Visual Arts
(BVA), Bachelor of Design Arts (BDA), the fourth year Honours program, or
the two-year Diploma of Art. In addition, the combined degrees of Bachelor of
Arts/Bachelor of Visual Arts (BA/BVA) and Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Asian
Studies (Specialist) (B.Asian/BVA), Bachelor of Science (Forestry)/Bachelor of
Visual Arts (BSc/BVA) are available. The Centre for New Media Arts (CNMA)
offers studies in computer animation; computer music and digital video through
its BA (Digital Arts) and BA (New Media Arts) programs.
Through The Australian National University Graduate Program, ANU School
of Art visual arts offers research degrees leading to the PhD and the Master
of Philosophy in both studio practice and conventional thesis modes. The
coursework graduate degrees include the two year Master of Arts (Visual Arts),
the one year Master of Visual Arts and the two semester Graduate Diploma of
Art (by studio practice or by coursework).
69
W: http://arts.anu.edu.au
T: (02) 61255810
E: [email protected]
ANU CRICOS Provider Number 00120C
Ruth Waller
Head Painting Workshop
[email protected]
Local Supporting Galleries and Artist
Studios
both gallery and offsite locations. CCAS Manuka is open Wednesday to Sunday during
publicised exhibitions.
Open: Tue to Fri 11am – 5pm,
Sat 10am – 4pm.
Gorman House Arts Centre
Ainslie Avenue Braddon ACT
Tel: 02 6247 0188
CCAS MANUKA–Tel: 02 6295 3112
www.ccas.com.au
THE ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE GALLERY
Established in 1943, as a meeting place for Francophiles and as a French language
learning centre, the Alliance Française has extended its activities to include concerts,
lectures given by well-known university academics and visiting French personalities as
well as to view a wide range of exhibitions. The Alliance Française offers an excellent
exhibition space close to the city and close to the restaurants in the suburb of O’Connor.
Open: Mon to Thurs 9am – 8pm,
Fri 9am – 5pm, Sat 9am – 1pm
66 McCaughey Street
Turner ACT
Tel: 02 6247 5027
www.afcanberra.com.au
THE FRONT GALLERY AND CAFÉ
The Front Gallery and Café is a new and exciting venture between artists and ANU
School of Art graduates, Rose Osborne and Paul Jamieson. The Front is a warm and
welcoming gallery and café environment, both indoors and outdoors. Enjoy the art, take
time out for a cup of coffee, talk with the artists, browse through art magazines and check
out the blackboard special events including poetry, jazz, acoustic sets, and more.
Open: Mon to Wed 9am – 5pm,
Thurs to Sat 9am – late
Closed: Christmas Day
Lyneham Shops Wattle Street
Lyneham ACT
Tel: 02 6249 8453
ANCA GALLERY
The Australian National Capital Artists (ANCA) Gallery is an integral part of a practicing
artists’ co-operative. Through a program of changing exhibitions of visual arts and crafts,
ANCA Gallery showcases the work of local, national and international artists. ANCA
currently supports more than 40 artists working in 35 purpose-built non-residential
studios. The studios range in size from 32 to 100 square metres with the option of shared
or single occupancy.
Open: Wed to Sun 12pm – 5pm
Closed: Christmas Day to New Year
1 Rosevear Place
Dickson ACT
Tel: 02 6247 8736
www.anca.canberra.net.au
ANU DRILL HALL GALLERY
The ANU Drill Hall Gallery provides visitors with a changing program of diverse and
stimulating exhibitions that highlight achievements in contemporary visual arts both
nationally and internationally. The Gallery supports the arts in the Canberra region by
providing link exhibitions developed in conjunction with the University’s wide ranging
academic interests and to coincide with major conferences and public events.
Open: Wed to Sun 12pm – 5pm
Australian National University
Kingsley Street Acton ACT
Tel: 02 6125 5832
http://info.anu.edu.au/mac/Drill_Hall_Gallery
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CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE
Canberra Contemporary Art Space (CCAS) presents exhibitions and events by Australian
and international artists. Established in 1987, CCAS is a non-profit organisation which
shows more than 40 contemporary art projects annually in the ACT. With two venues in
Canberra, the program features a dynamic mix of solo, group and curated exhibitions in
HELEN MAXWELL GALLERY
New exhibitions are held each month at the Helen Maxwell Gallery in the heart of
Canberra. Exhibitions feature contemporary art from Australia and the Pacific region and
the stockroom includes Indigenous art. The Gallery has opened a new space devoted
solely to Indigenous art including artists such as Judy Watson, Jean Baptist Apuatimi and
Peggy Napangardi Jones.
Open: Wed. to Sat. 11pm – 5pm,
Sun. 11am – 3pm
Level 1/42 Mort Street
Braddon ACT
Tel: 02 6257 8422
www.helenmaxwell.com
IMPRESSIONS ON PAPER GALLERY
Opened in 2004, Impressions on Paper Gallery is a unique gallery that deals only
in original limited edition prints by Australian printmakers and mainstream artists.
Lithographs, etchings, screenprints and other works on paper are a feature. The gallery
has two spaces, one for monthly exhibitions and one for viewing stock. Works by well
known Australian artists such as Margaret Olley, Garry Shead, Colin Lanceley, David
Larwill, Jenny Sages and Jason Benjamin are on display.
Open: Tues. to Sun. 11am – 5pm
7 Lonsdale Street Braddon ACT
Tel: 02 6161 3185
www.impressionsonpaper.com.au
M16 ARTSPACE
M16 is an artist run initiative offering a dynamic environment for artists to create and
exhibit their work. Uniquely located in an industrial site in the inner south of Canberra,
M16 provides affordable and flexible studio and gallery spaces for artists in the Canberra
region and interstate. The exhibition program includes work by individual artists as well as
community organisations. M16 is a place for artists and the public to engage directly with
contemporary art.
Open: Wed to Sun 12pm – 5pm
16 Mildura Street
Fyshwick ACT (opposite the Salvos Shop)
Tel: 02 6295 9438
www.m16artspace.com
STEPHANIE BURNS FINE ART
Stephanie Burns Fine Art specialises in the sale of original prints by the great masters of
the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries including Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cezanne, Mark Chagall,
Lucien Freud, Francisco Goya, Fernand Leger, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro and Pablo
Picasso. The gallery also shows works by contemporary Australian and British artists,
exhibiting paintings, works on paper, ceramics, photographs, etchings and sculptures to
suit all tastes and budgets.
Open: Wed to. Sun 11am – 5pm
2/25 Bentham Street
Yarralumla ACT
Tel: 02 6285 2909
www.stephanieburns.com.au
TUGGERANONG ARTS CENTRE GALLERY
Tuggeranong Arts Centre’s warm and inviting gallery space glows with natural light that
flows from its cathedral and ceiling windows. An engaging and dynamic space, each
year it is home to a diverse array of more than 26 exhibitions in a program that features
the work of both professional and community artists practising in a wide range of media
drawn from both the local community as well as interstate.
Open: Mon to Fri 9am – 5pm,
Sat and Sun 1pm – 4pm
Closed: Public Holidays
Cnr Cowlishaw and Reed Street
Greenway ACT
Tel: 02 6293 1443
www.tca.asn.au
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This information is from The Primary Guide: Galleries, Exhibitions, Collections and
Museums, an Arts Around Canberra publication by Canberra
Arts Marketing (CAM). It is produced as a part of its cooperative
marketing program for members. Discover The Primary
Guide to arts and culture in the nation’s Capital and Region at
artsaroundcanberra.com.au
Acknowledements
Publisher:
Gallery Program Co-ordinator:
Gallery Administrative Assistants:
Australian National University
James Holland (Acting)
Julie Cuerden-Clifford
& Jay Kochel
Catalogue Design and Layout:
Catalogue Essays and Editing:
Printing:
Ruth Waller & Jay Kochel
Ruth Waller
Goanna Print , Canberra
Edition:
ISBN:
1500
07315 30470
© The artists and the ANU School of Art Gallery.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any
information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission of the publisher.
Street Address:
Postal Address:
Corner of Ellery Crescent and Liversidge Street,
Acton ACT
ANU School of Art Gallery, Building 105,
Australian National University ACT 0200 Australia
W: http://www.anu.edu.au/art E: [email protected]
T: (02)6125 5841 F: (02)6125 0491
Supported by the ANU National Institute of the Humanities & Creative Arts (NIHCA)